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DOCUMENT RESUME IR 017 194 ED 383 339 Smith, Patricia L.; Ragan, Tillman J. AUTHOR An Essay on Experience, Information, and TITLE Instruction. PUB DATE 95 6p.; In: Proceedings of the 1995 Annual National NOTE Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), (17th, Anaheim, CA, 1995); see IR 017 139. Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150) (120) MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Constructivism (Learning); Educational Environment; DESCRIPTORS 'Educational Strategies; Educational Technology; *Experiential Learning; Information Dissemination; Teaching Methods ABSTRACT The relative cognitive requirements and benefits of learning from non-contrived experience and information presentation is considered. The advantages and costs are contrasted with contrived experience and information-reduction that are features of instruction. An overview is given of one method of viewing the relationship between experience and information, in the form of an experience to information continuum. Experience is discussed in terms of computer and instructional technology; virtual reality; the cognitive operation of forming concepts; language; constructivism; and possible instructional tools and approaches. Information availability, access to information, and information-based learning systems are examined. The richer meaning of instruction in the context of instructional technology is explored. It is asserted that instruction should be a process that involves both sources of learning (experience and information), as the situation requires. Caution is advised against the seduction of adopting computer-based learning environments. The nature of learners' prior knowledge, motivations, beliefs, and the nature of the potential learning outcomes are all crucial in making instructional decisions. (Contains seven references.) (MAS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** EDUCATION U.S. DEPARTMENT Of end improvement Office of Edu Cations! Re Search ,INFORMATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERIC) been reproduced as 0 This document has or organization received !torn the pars°, originatIng it been made to improve O Minor changes have reproduction quality stated in this docu Points of view or opinions represent offictst ment do not neCeSs.inly OE RI positron or policy Title: An Essay on Experience, Information, and Instruction Authors: Patricia L. Smith find Tillman J. Ragan University of Oklahoma "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS N MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Zenor S. 2 0 558 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." BEST COPY AVAILABLE About ten years ago Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and microelectronics pioneer, was the keynote speaker for AECT. One striking picture that Bushnell portrayed of educational technology in the future is the ability through virtual reality to come close to first hand experience of any event or place. Instead of reading about Italy, a student will be able to walk down the streets of Italy where (s)he wishes to Instead of reading, hearing about, or passively watching a go, smelling the smells, feeling the sunshine. barrels of tea reenactment of the "Boston Tea Party" students could actually "participate" in it, hacking open and tossing them into the Boston Harbor. Being true fans of the "Star Trek Next Generation" holodeck we have been enchanted by the educational future that Bushel presented. At the same time, as educational technologists, instructional designers, learners, and tax-payers, we were immediately both struck by the effort involved in such virtual experiences and by the uncertainty of when such experiences would be so desirable that the costs would be worthwhile. We have also conjectured about if or when such experiences issues of might actually be deleterious to learning. Although these issues do not "map" directly upon the and situated cognition, they are related to some of the recurring issues addressed by instructional designers instructional theorists regarding the role and nature of experience in learning. Recent developments in microelectronic technology have made substantial changes on how experience instruction is and information are perceived. These changes have also contributed to a major shift in how perceived. Instructional technologists must keep abreast of not only the product technology developmer., and their impact on popular culture but also, and perhaps most importantly, the implications and widely- repercussions for instructional technology. It is easy to become swept up in the flow of the more leadership so held popular interpretations of "technology," loosing both traditional strengths and intellectual and desperately needed in times of change. In this paper we will consider the relative cognitive requirements benefits of learning from non-contrived experience and information presentation, and contrast these instruction. advantages and costs with contrived experience and information-reduction that are features of information In our reflecting on these issues we have constructed one perspective of how experience and relate to each other and to instruction. We later in this paper will discuss these terms but here we will overview one way of viewing these relationships that may be productive for instructional technologists. the only The dimension represented on the continuum is abstraction of experience. In "everyday experience" end, abstraction that occurs, is that which the individual performs on the raw stimulus daia. On the other information is data that has been reduced and organized by the author in order to represent his or her personally relevant interpretation of multiple events, objects, and experiences. Figure 1. Experience to information continuum. Number of Roles, Examples Data Less More Breadth 411---- 40' Depth A multiple information multiple vicarious microworids a everyday virtual information problem experience experience experience simulations perspectives contexts Instruction: Contrived Experience for Learning Experience technology are changing what a Recent developments, and much-discussed pending ones, in computer experiences. Increasing precision and realism of available person can anticipate in the way of feasible aircraft, WW-I biplanes, WW-2 computer-driven simulations now provide "experience" in flying private military aircraft, in either cross-country flight or fighter aircraft, F -18 "Tomcat" and other current supersonic available to anyone with a personal computer and $29 in combat with other aircraft. These simulations are fidelity, these and other real-time simulations for the purchase price of the software. At lower levels of Apple U computers: This technology can no longer be considered were available 15 years ago for use on represented by aircraft simulators, chess players, city-building, new. "Artificial experience," whether in a worldwide search for a master criminal skiing, golfing on the 12 best courses in the word, or engaging culture. has been with us long enough to soak into the popular impact on what we may Virtual reality is another, related development that extends technology's increasingly realistic and compelling experience. Virtual reality maximizes sensory involvement in words of Nolan Bushel (1986), simulation-like interactive environments, allowing a participant to, in the such experience through technology, the In the glow of fascination with the ability to supply "be there." long. We often read about or technoromantic often forgets that to experience everything first hand takes too time: there is not time enough to experience it all firsthand. engage in other abstractions to save of protecting us from experiencing everything The cognitive operation of forming concepts is a means chair never seen before looses some directly. Once a person knows "chair-ness," the experience of seeing 4 filled with countless kinds of chairs with of its luster. The jaded chair-knower can go about in a world in the right place before sitting down. hardly a second thought to each new chair, except to be sure it is of experiencing a new world filled with new There is a fundamental trade-off at work: we trade off the joy of the world gives us. wonders at every turn for the power and efficiency that knowledge language of all sorts verbal, Analogous to forming concepts, the phenomena of written and uttered allows condensation and distillation of direct experience. Most of the mathematical, musical, visual them, but at impossible expense in time operations allowed by language systems can be performed without makes it ludicrous to imagine a requirements. It is perhaps most fundamentally the time problem that the elimination of all things not reform in human interactions, activity, and learning that would be based on part of direct experience. particularly new thing. In Altering availability and quality of experience through technology is not a education through a greater the 1930's and 40's, the progressivist movement sought to improve in learning (1919, 1938) concentration on student's experiences. Dewey's work on the role of experience learning. forms the philosophical basis for much current thinking in experience-centered conceptualization of Dewey's thinking was not directed at instruction, per se, but was a broader of education to be education as an enterprise to serve democracy. Yet, his insistence on the requirement academic sources, is a thread built from and serve the needs of individuals as opposed to external, traditional merely based on that runs through current educational thought. Dewey's thinking on experience was not rational, reflective thinking pattern the need for relevance but also in a fundamental sense, tied closely to a only authentic means at our command for getting at the or "scientific method," citing that method as "the 1929) significance of the everyday experiences in the world in which we live." (Dewey, experience. A long- Instructional technology provides us with a changing conception of the role of technologists have struggled standing orientation of many classroom teachers, against which instructional without sufficient attention to for many years, has been the planning and provision classroom experiences improving what sorts of learning those experiences might lead to. An instructional design orientation to teaching. Instructional teaching has suggested reevaluating an "activity for activity's sake" orientation to potential outcomes of designers have suggested rather than teachers and curriculum developers consider the sometimes traditional activities. In contrast, current thought as embodied in the constructivist movement experience has become emphasizes richness of experience as an end in itself. According to some theorists, of the experience. the objective for constructivists. Learning is said to be in the experience, not a product of those How we come to know is seen to be in our interactions with the environment, not a product interactions (Duffy, 1994). cognition, authentic We concur with the important contribution to the quality of learning that situated countless tasks, and other constructivist tenets can bring to learning from instruction. There have been internalized, instances of learners suffering from "un-authentic" instruction that leaves the learner with no learning in meaningful body of knowledge or skill. Such appears to be the case with much of mathematics become the United States today. It seems clear that there is a critical need for tools that will help learning in meaningful, and it appears that situated cognition and other constructivist tools represent true progress this direction. 4 560 The difficulty we face is a lack of sufficient work on when, and under what circumstances these tools or approaches should be used. Some alternative conceptualizations could be explored: 1) Approach all instruction from either extreme, only information, always direct, everyday experience. We reject this alternative out of consideration for the requirements imposed by certain interactions of learners, learning tasks, and often other factors from instructional needs, settings and the like. Other considerations may also tip the choice, including those for need for efficiency of learning that may override needs for meaningfulness and interest. Medical schools may choose not to break each bone in the bodies of students who are specializing in orthopedic surgery. Or, as Winn has noted: "I am not convinced yet that all knowledge can be constructed by students. The student must have some knowledge from which to start instruction, and that knowledge must be explicitly taught." Winn (1992) 2) Never acknowledge one of the extremes as a means to learning. We reject this alternative based on consideration of the unquestionable value of direct experience and raw information to learning. However, we would not term these extremes "instruction." 3) Sometimes use experience-rich or information-rich strategies, depending on the situation. This is the position we wish to work from, leaving the question, what would guide us in deciding when and under what circumstances will working at the extremes be useful? The task, it seems to us, is to learn more about what interacts with situations and instructional strategies. Information Popularly available information in recent years has changed from static to dynamic, from carefully gatekept to open, from delayed to immediate, and from structured to free-form. We see this information resident in hypermedia, databases, computer networks and bulletin boards, end in information storage media, such as CD ROM technology. This information can be timely, provide contrasting perspectives, and provide extreme depth and detail in coverage. To those having strong information needs, never has information been so rapidly available. Exploration in information-rich, hypermedia environments has been seen by some as a solution to educational problems. However, pree:..ion of access to information, regardless of how deep or elaborate, is not in and of itself sufficient for instruction. All of the issues that he constructivist movement has so forcefully put are germane: meaning does not reside in the message, ideas are not "transferred," individuals must organize or "construct" information in ways that are personally meaningful. This task can be overwhelming m working from an information-only base, or as Perkins described it, having a "high price in the cognitive economy" (1992). Some research seems to support the suggestion that pure information may not be sufficient to support learning. For example, Jacobson, Kolar, Maouri, Mishra and Spiro (1994) investigated learning in hypertext environments and found that learners in a no-guidance condition were overwhelmed and not as successful as learners provided with guidance. 'The mere availability of nonlinear hypertext links may not be sufficient to affect substantive learning outcomes." (p. 17) Some limitations inherent to information-based learning systems include the expectations of learners' lities to select, evaluate, sequence, and structure this information anticipates new levels of text processing and other learner strategies that may not be presently available in many learners' repertoire. Other characteristics possessed by novices in a domain severely limit the usefulness of unguided exploration in information bases. Instruction The technology of printing reduced demands on learners from that of direct experience or the vicissitudes of oral tradition, and the technology of instruction/teaching has offered a guiding hand through the world of information. The term, "instruction," never well-understood, seems to be taking a new A frequently- meaning, one that is far from its rich meaning in the context of instructional technology. observed trend is to consider instruction as referring to only a specific sort of strategies, ones of a didactic or reception-learning sort. By some, instuction is perceived as something "done" to learners, rather than something that is "participated in" by learners. We consider instruction to include a range of strategies that facilitate experiences that are expected to lead to learning. Instruction may be seen to reside between two poles: experience and information, and should involve a process that involves both sources of learning, as the situation requires. On the continuum presented earlier, we place instruction in the range between everyday experience and transmission of information. Indeed, we describe instruction in this arena, to be the facilitation of contrived experiences. These contrived experiences can range from "being there" as in participating in the Boston Tea Party to selecting and reading 5 561 excerpts of diaries of British and colonial participants and observers of the Boston Tea Party, to reading historical analyses of this event and evaluating or reacting to them. Instruction that is all experience is at risk of being vapid and impractical, or too limited in scope or example-provision to allow transfer. Instruction that is all information may be irrelevant and meaningless. Choices between the two sources as well as other essential ones in fostering learning are implicit in instructional design. The richness of experience and information that computer-based learning environments can now provide is seductive in appearing sufficient to learning, in much the same way that motion picture films were seductive to educators of the 1920's and 30's. Fascination with the power of a technology should not distract us from learning to harness the technology for learning rather than worship it. Critical in these instructional decisions are evaluating the nature of the learners' prior knowledge, motivations, beliefs, as well as the nature of the potential learning outcomes. A question, illustrative of our concern, is what forms of learning guidance are needed in exploratory learning situations. We are currently engaged in empirical studies on this topic, in which varying forms of support are employed in exploratory, computer based learning environments. Our preliminary results are pointing to a particular needs for support for novice learners, different from the needs of learners with prior knowledge or skill. In an article on conditions that foster student engagement in productive autonomous learning activities, Thomas and Rower (1993) provide a set of course-specific facilitators including the explicit articulation of demand conditions and support practices, the provision of authentic self-directed learning responsibilities and tasks, and opportunities to assess the effectiveness of existing strategies and to learn new ones. Often the provision of the paired situations, as exemplified in the Jasper series (such as Journey Down Cedar Creek), while rich and engaging, fails to provide application of skills in more than one context, decreasing the odds of transfer. We would not avoid the Journey Down Cedar Creek (though a question exists as to how "authentic" a situation a boat trip might be to many learners, such as those from inner city environments), but would question its adequacy, hoping to extend it with practice using multiple examples. References Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan. Dewey, J. (1920). Experience and ed_ucation. New York: Macmillan. Dewey, J. (1929). Experience and nature. Chicago: Open Court. Duffy, T. (1994). So How Do You Implement Constructivism in Instructional Design? Contribution to Panel Discussion, Instructional Technology Special Interest Group Business Meeting, American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. Bushnell, N. (1986), "Virtual Reality and Education" General Session, Annual Meeting, Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Las Vegas. Jacobson, M.J., Kolar, C. Maouri, C., Mishra, P., & Spiro, R.J. (1994). Research into learning with hypertext learning environments: Cognitive flexibility, epistemic beliefs, and knowledge transfer. Paper presented at annual meeting of American Educational Research Association, New Orleans. Thomas, J.W. & Rowher, W.D. (1993). Proficient autonomous learning: Problems and prospects. In M. Rabinowitz (Ed.), Cognitive science foundations of instruction. Hillsdale: Erlbaum. 562